CAIRO (AP) — Israel said Sunday it expects all living hostages held in Gaza to be released Monday under its ceasefire deal with Hamas, as Palestinians await the release of hundreds of prisoners held in Israel and an influx of aid into the famine-stricken territory.
“In a few hours, we will all be reunited,” Israeli military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump planned to visit Israel and Egypt on Monday to celebrate the ceasefire announced last week in the two-year-old war.
“The war is over,” Trump told reporters as he left, adding that he believed the ceasefire would hold. He said he would be “proud” to visit Gaza.
Live hostages expected first
Israeli government spokesman Shosh Bedrosian said all 20 living hostages should be handed over to the Red Cross at the same time and then taken to a military base to reunite with their families or, if necessary, immediately to a hospital.
After the release of the hostages, Israel was prepared to release approximately 2,000 Palestinian detainees and receive the 28 hostages believed to be dead.
An international task force will begin work to locate deceased hostages who will not be returned within 72 hours, said Gal Hirsch, Israel’s coordinator for hostages and the missing.
“The reality is we may never get back to some hostages,” US Vice President JD Vance told Fox News.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose name was repeatedly booed Saturday during a weekly pro-hostage rally in Tel Aviv, said Monday would be a “path to healing.” Many Israelis accused him of prolonging the war for political purposes, which he denied.
No timetable has been announced for the release of Palestinian prisoners. Of these, 250 people are serving life sentences, in addition to 1,700 people captured in Gaza during the war and detained without charge.
A Palestinian official said a Hamas delegation was in Cairo to discuss the list of prisoners with mediators. The official said Hamas was pushing for the release of Marwan Barghouti, the most popular Palestinian leader and a potentially unifying figure, as well as several others serving life sentences. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. There was no immediate comment from Israel, which considers Barghouti a terrorist leader.
Israel warned West Bank Palestinians against celebrating after the releases, according to a prisoner’s family and a Palestinian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to questions.
Prepare a wave of aid
The UN reported “real progress” in humanitarian aid to Gaza on Sunday evening, saying it and its partners had distributed hundreds of thousands of hot meals and bread. Cooking gas entered the territory for the first time since March, during the previous ceasefire. The UN said Israel had now approved the entry of 190,000 tonnes of aid, up from 170,000.
Israel’s military body responsible for humanitarian aid to Gaza said the volume of incoming aid is expected to increase to around 600 trucks per day, as stipulated in the agreement.
“Much of Gaza is desert,” U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told The Associated Press. He said the UN had a plan for the next two months also aimed at restoring basic medical and other services and clearing the rubble.
Food distribution sites run by the controversial Gaza Strip Humanitarian Foundation, backed by the United States and Israel, are being closed, an Egyptian and another regional official told the AP.
Preparations for Trump’s visit
Trump, who has been pushing for a ceasefire deal, was expected to arrive in Israel Monday morning. He will meet the families of the hostages and speak in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, according to the White House.
Trump will continue his trip to Egypt, where Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s office announced he would co-chair a “peace summit” with regional and international leaders on Monday. Mahmoud Abbas, head of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, will be present, Mahmoud al-Habbash, a judge and adviser to Abbas, told the AP.
Key questions regarding the governance of Gaza and the fate of Hamas after the war, including its disarmament plan, still remain to be resolved.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on
How this will be achieved, as Israeli forces have withdrawn inside Gaza, was not immediately clear.
Gaza residents return to rubble
Palestinians returned to areas evacuated by Israeli forces. Satellite photos taken Saturday and analyzed by the AP showed a line of vehicles heading north toward Gaza City.
Palestinian flags stood out against the dust-covered ruins. Mohamed Samy said he immediately went to check on his home.
“It was razed, like everything else in Jabaliya,” Samy said. It was an empty lot. “It was as if the building had never existed in that location. I questioned my sanity.”
Armed police from Gaza City and southern Gaza patrolled the streets and secured aid trucks in areas where the Israeli army had withdrawn, residents said. The police are part of the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.
The ministry said it would allow armed gang members not involved in the killing of Palestinians to turn themselves in as early as Monday to “repent and be pardoned.”
First responders searched previously inaccessible areas for bodies beneath the rubble. Health officials said 233 people had been hospitalized since Friday, when the truce took effect. Some were just bones.
Yasser el-Bureis, of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, said his family finally recovered the remains of two cousins.
“For five months we failed to recover the bodies,” he said.
2 years of war
The war began when Hamas-led militants launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.
In the ensuing Israeli offensive, more than 67,000 Palestinians were killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and fighters but says about half of the dead were women and children. The ministry is part of the Hamas-led government, and the UN and many independent experts consider its figures the most reliable estimate of war casualties.
The war has destroyed large swaths of Gaza and displaced around 90% of its 2 million residents. It also sparked other conflicts in the region, sparked global protests and led to allegations of genocide that Israel denies.
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Lidman reported from Tel Aviv. Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Cairo, Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, Abby Sewell and Bassem Mroue in Beirut, and Jalal Bwaitel and Sam Metz in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
